That Which Defines Us
by Bloodblitz6121
Summary: The world is a dangerous place. No matter what era, decade, century or millennium. A person is only as strong as the people who define him. Trinity is Sebastian's reason to continue. And Sebastian is Trinity's reason to continue. A story that shows how important teamwork, relationship and other characteristics of close friends can bring out the best in humanity. For they'll need it
1. Nightcrawler

**Chapter 1- Nightcrawler**

"Dead. Everyone of them. Final-fuckingly they're all gone!"

"Trinity, red marker, duck NOW!"

A startled young female leapt out of the way of the oncoming creature as a man with a beret popped a few pieces of led right into the creature's skull.

"Trinity, what were you thinking? I understand your shooting skills have improved tenfold since I first met you, but that's no way to go about surviving in this day and age."

"Aw come on Sebs, why'd you ruin my fun? You know I had that puppy by the throat. All I needed was a little nudge in the 180 degree direction, and his neck would've made a fine flap for a sweater."

"Your neck would've held a nice crimson stain if I hadn't Pip-Boy'd it in the head. Sides, your mercenary uniform looks fine anyway."

"Well don't you know the way to a girl's heart, mister fancy duds?"

"No, I just know the best way not to get a hickey right in the uvula."

"Alright tough guy lets grab some of the skin and use it to cover ourselves up. I'll go deeper into the cave; see if I can't find anything worth looting."

That girl had served her weight in gold to Sebs, or, Sebastian. Although Sebastian was a recon sniper in the NCR, he had to admit the girl had chutzpah. She had an undesirable urge for bloodlust, in the good way of course. I guess it had to do with her being a legionnaire slave in her past.

Trinity was a young 21 year old brown haired girl, who had a more slender figure since her past had its toll on her, and modeled a mercenary uniform that compensated for her skinny posterior. Ever since Trinity was a little girl, she was a merciless fighter. Every opportunity she had to show her stuff in the fight pits, she always proved to be a worthy opponent to any fighter, man or woman who took her on. Any Legionary, Decanus, Centurion, or Vexillarius who was curious to rear their ugly head to watch barely blinked at the mere sight of such a creature dashing their ideals about slaves. She once claimed that Caesar himself watched her performance, but Sebastian scoffed at the idea, since he believed Caesar's only place in society was at the top of his fortified hill at The Fort. Perhaps it was Vulpes, since somebody in the higher ups took notice of her success by giving her her personal own prison cell once she reached the age of 14.

Sebastian was a 33 year old bald man who wore a 1st recon beret, and had a fair build. In his past, he had his hand in the battle of Bitter Springs, a blank spot he preferred to keep unchecked in his checklist of life experiences. As a recon sniper, Sebastian's accuracy was only matched by a former friend of his; Craig Boone. The two, however, hadn't kept in contact since that event in their life. Other than his NCR service, Sebastian was also part time babysitter, taking care of the 21 year old Trinity.

When Trinity was 18 years old, she was sentenced to be burned on the cross for double crossing the Legion. During the night of her 18th birthday, she was given the opportunity to escape, with a friend helping her escape. That "friend," unfortunately, was an obedient little slave who helped the Legion sniff out any dogs in the camp. All Trinity could do was make a break for it, with several Legion on her back and the mongrels hot on her tail. After her capture, Caesar was her presiding judge, giving her the sentence of crucifixion on a cross in the nearby Cottonwood Cove. There she hung for the night, freezing in the cold, night air, as hypothermia nearly took its course on her, when an invisible figure came across her hanging body, and cut her down. Her night in shining armor, of course, was Sebastian.

It took three years for Trinity to see life outside the cages and fight pits. Needless to say, she had trust issues with people she met in various towns like Goodsprings and Nipton (or, what it had been before "the incident.") Sebastian gave her a weapon to fend off the wild with, but Trinity preferred her hand to hand experience, and her knife skills were unparalleled. So, Sebastian did the primary firing while Trinity was as sleek and sneaky as a nightcrawler. By the time a group of Powder Gangers began to lob dynamite at Sebastian, Trinity could use her extreme stealth skills to slit a nice gaping hole in their jugular and be on her way back to Sebastian while whistling one of the Pip-Boy's limited library of media.

"Trinity, did you find anything back their? I'm beginning to get worried, which I don't usually do, unless you don't report back to me every few minutes, in which case, I get panicked. You know how I was in the military."

"Yeah, yeah yeah, Sebs, don't worry. All I found was this dingy terminal back here, but I can't unlock it. Do you mind coming back and using that grey matter of yours to solve the issue?"

"If you give me a few minutes, I'll be sure to put it on the agenda, but right now, I'm cooking out dinner."

If Trinity had one defining trait about her, it was her impatience. Rather than allow Sebastian a few minutes of peace and quiet, she instead hoisted the terminal on her back and dumped it in front of his posterior.

"GAH! Trinity, what the hell? Can't you for once, I don't know, knock before you enter?"

"Come on Sebs, I am the one who knocks! I'm the master of announcing myself to people!"

"Just stand back, I got it."

Sebastian's science was on the positive side this time around, since he was fortunate enough to only have one word to work with: Nightcrawler.

"Huh. The irony in that password is just too convenient."

"Know what's convenient? The nightcrawler meat is cooked!"

Sebastian scanned the computer screen as everything loaded onto the screen, until a single entry appeared on the screen; **Nightcrawler**.

"Looks like we've got some in-house entertainment while we chow down, eh Sebs?"

"Yeah, sure, entertainment. It's probably another entry about post-apocalyptic problems."

…

Alcohol; the only substance meant for a traveler like me. The only thing that truly understood the plight of someone who had faced hell and back like I had. The only actual thing that would listen to my drunken stupors and the bullshit I spouted. Mostly though, it was the cave walls that echoed back at me every time I opened up my gums to speak my peace on a daily basis.

So rather than force the walls to bear my words, I instead decided to record my thoughts on this dingy terminal. Not a very convenient one at that, since it's so far back into a cave full of fucking nightcrawlers, but Stealth Boys are beautiful inventions. Nightcrawlers, yeah right. More like night terrors. Sadistically, I find that funnier now than I ever would, since I'm surrounded by the bastards.

Anyway, I'm wasting space on this heap of steel. Maybe somebody else more interesting has better words to type than I do. I never was the best typist anyway. But for anybody reading this in the future, my name is Billy West. I'm 46 and for the past year, my life fell apart, with my wife's sudden death and my sons kidnapping (Johnny West for reference.) My rants almost over. As is my life. It's almost like I can feel the warm breeze from the beasts behind me. If theirs anything left to write it's simply this; please, find my son. The Powder Gangers took him to a cave nearby here. The data on the terminal can take you their. Download the coordinates and it should lead you to a nearby cave. And don't forget, the cave is potentially filled with a;kslj fd;sfsdklff'a.

…

"a colon k s? Never heard of a creature with such a ridiculous name before."

"That's because he died before he could finish it, as indicated by the dried blood splatter on the keyboard."

"Obviously."

"According to the data I encrypted on my Pip-Boy, it says the cave is named Nopah Cave. And it's only a couple of minutes away."

"Well we can't let a dead mans wish fade away into oblivion, can we? I say we take a trip to Nopah Cave first thing in the morning. Then we ransack the place, and blast our way through the cave until we find the kid."

"Sleep first. Powder Gangers and acolonks's tomorrow."

"Goodnight Sebastian. Goodnight Powder Gangers. Goodnight Billy."

...


	2. Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Chapter 2-Between a rock and a hard place

The sun awakened the tired mercenaries by going full on blast of UV rays into the cave they currently occupied. Luckily, because of their pasts, they were used to it.

Today was another special day for the duo; the day they get to go full force into a cave full of Powder Gangers armed to the brim with sticks of dynamite. Plus, an unknown force that was lurking somewhere in the very same cave that had hopefully been purged by the gangers.

Nopah Cave wasn't too far of a distance away from the cave they occupied. As the sun came up, the moon fell back asleep; something the team wished they had more of. Sebastian's Pip-Boy read 6:00. Too early to rise. He'd been used to it though, admittedly, he just wasn't up for trudging through the 92 degree weather. Along the way, they encountered the usual; cacti, dirt and mountains. Sebastian read in a book once that the Mojave wasn't so different before the world ended. Read that the rocks were always painted red, and that some of the bombs that fell just ignored some of the crags and precipices that towered over them.

Before the fight, the twosome confirmed that they had everything they'd need to face off against yet another coalition of badasses. Today's menu consisted of a sniper rifle to the face, with a side order of grenades, and for Trinity, she went with the usual gladius with a silenced 10mm to top off the meal. But food aside, Trinity was eager to get her comeuppance for yet another victim of the gangers, because in addition to the slavery that she endured from the Legion, the gangers had a bounty out on the pair. Nothing too bad, just a measly 1000 caps on Trinity and 5000 on Sebastian.

Outside of the cave, Sebastian began formulating a plan that would lead the gangers outside of the cave. The plan was very simple; get Trinity to bounce around like an idiot and make as much noise as possible to alert the crowd inside, then pick them off one at a time.

Trinity began her usual ruse of banging rocks against the ground, yelling like an idiot, and yelling words of advice like "Make sure to lube his dynamite before shoving up your partner's ass." That line alone got three gangers to report to the front of the cave, eager to bombard the assailants with explosives. What they didn't expect was Sebastian's perfect accuracy with his Sniper, and for Trinity to ambush the dummies from above.

Within seconds, three fresh corpses lay before the mouth of the cave; one missing a head due to Trinity's sharper than life Gladius, another with a .308 caliber round precisely aimed through his eye socket, and a third with a 10mm round lodged precariously in his brain. The guy must've had a tough head, with nothing to fill it.

Sebastian next prepared a grenade to be thrown, as he could hear a posse of troopers approaching the cave entrance. Five this time. And all prepared for combat. That would be if the grenade hadn't detonated right underneath their feet as they scrambled up the cave to see the blinding light.

"KABOOM!" Roared the grenade with a thunderous cry for blood, as the five men were instantly turned to a black stain in the silt. Not a pretty sight for anybody to witness, but then again, the duo were used to things getting fucked before their very eyes.

To confirm whether or not anything else lived in the cave, Sebastian and Trinity patiently waited at the mouth of the cave to confirm if anything would announce itself to the open. Fortunately, after ten minutes of confirmation, the cave sat silent. Silent as the dead blowing in the wind.

"So Sebastian, have you ever shot a plasma weapons before?" Asked Trinity, as the team walked into the cave.

"Nah, only the real deal can do it for a guy like me. And by that I mean the sweet euphoria I get from one of these babies whizzing right into the eye socket of a man I despise."

"What if that man had kids? What if he was a donor? What if…"

"What if he owned slaves, murdered children and raped anything that moved within his line of sight? Maybe I did the world a favor."

"Did you at least take some of his stuff?"

"He didn't have much; just ammo and dynamite. The dynamite will come in handy for what's down here. Plus, I assume that this was an operation of some kind to get rid of what's buried below."

As Trinity and Sebastian descended into the darkness below, Sebastian booted up the light on his Pip-Boy to give the cave some much deserted illumination. Upon the light booting up, they noticed caches of various weapons, ammo and food laid around the area.

Picking up what they could carry, mainly food and ammo, they descended lower into the catacombs of the deceased gangers. Upon reaching the bottom, they found themselves in a small open room, filled with stalagmites above, and plants growing all around the sides.

"Before we any deeper, let's examine the plants to see if any creatures are indigenous to this area," said Trinity.

"Looks like I'm teaching you something after all, my student," said Sebastian imitating a kung fu master.

Upon inspection of the small plant life, the two came to the conclusion that the area was empty and deserted. Nothing remaining in this dingy musty cave.

In the back of the room, however, lay an entrance to another section of the cave; one that was blocked off by boulders. The only logical conclusion the two could draw was that something vicious lay beyond the caved-in segment.

"Wanna blow it up Trin?" Asked Sebastian in a cool manner.

"You bet your beret I do!" Trinity enthusiastically exclaimed to the cave.

Trinity quickly lit the wick at the end of the dynamite, and tossed it underneath the rocks to avoid a complete avalanche, or a rockalanche. Another BOOM! And there went the dynamite. What lay beyond was a door. A wooden door that had chains on it preventing easy access to the unknown.

"You know what you gotta do, Sebs. Pop that bitch open with your legendary lockpick skills so we can explore already!"

After an easy lockpick had been successfully broken, the chain came off the door. A quick observation of the chain revealed that the culprits were the Powder Gangers in here before them. An obvious conclusion since the only way to collapse this section of the cave would be a quick detonation of the tiny orange sticks. The only true question in this case was why? But that question was left for the reveal.

The door was opened quickly by Sebastian as cool air seemed to flow from beyond the door. That couldn't be a good sign. A narrow corridor lead the adventurers deeper into the fray, with the chills getting more and more noticeable.

A little bit further down the narrow corridor revealed a bit of light at the end and around a tall rock. Curious, Sebastian carefully stalked his way around the rock to take a peek around the corner. When he did, the grin on his face grew to painstakingly high levels of euphoria. He turned to Trinity with the grin on his face and mouthed the words; Vault.


	3. Vault 0

**Chapter 3- Vault 0**

Standing seven feet high and weighing in at a staggering 3 tons lay a steel plated vault entrance. It was a sight to behold for the two wanderers. Only the greatest of treasure hunters sought out the riches and research that could be contained in a massive unit like this. Well, mostly amateurs, since many didn't know the horrors contained in the underground structure below. Many would also try their luck just to find the greatest treasure of all; the treasure of the Sierra Madre, located in a vault just like this one. Of course, rumor had it only one managed to slip out of the deserted town with a sack of riches on his back. Or at least however many gold bars he could carry.

The vaults controls lay directly next to the entrance as usual, and provided easy means for entering their nightmares. Because anybody who ever stumbled across a vault and was unprepared to face the terrors that lay below could become a number of playthings that the dead tyrants who created Vault-Tec vaults could use in their next experiment from beyond the grave. On this vault, the number in white paint was labeled 0. Just 0.

"The signs are clear to me Trinity; the caved in entrance, the grunts outside and the story from the old man and his son. This vault is either the resting place of that young man, or if it isn't, then it sure as hell will be."

"Don't be so negative, dude. Johnny couldn't be down here. He must've been sold off to the Legion or something."

"Let's hope you're right about that."

The duo proceeded towards the big door, the air getting frigid. A big red button lay before them on a yellow control board in front of them. If it wasn't obvious that this was the button to press to open the door than maybe life works in mysterious ways.

Giving the button a hard slam, Trinity pounded the button with all her might in an effort to move the operation forward. The usual smoke came down from the outer rim of the vault as it slowly moved out of the way of the entrance.

Vault 0 opened to the usual scene; grey dullness, which the world seemed to have a lot of, and the usual layout. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing strange at all. No gore bags hanging from the ceiling, no skeletons sprawled across the room or, for that matter guns. Vault 0 was nothing. A dead zone for any treasure hunter.

"What gives," Trinity proclaimed to the cave around her, "the vaults fringing empty."

"I think that's a good thing in this case. Hopefully no more gangers to deal with."

The sight was unbelievable; empty, unused, and mostly, stocked and ready to be looted. Ever room was filled with beds unused, lights still functioning, water fountains running at full capacity thanks to the built-in G.E.C.K. And the pantries were stocked with canned and boxed goods.

While Trinity was enjoying herself with some Sugar Bombs, Sebastian decided to examine every inch of the place he could. He checked his Geiger counter on his Pip-Boy; nothing. He checked to see if he was dehydrated or slowly losing his health, but he wasn't. So what was the big idea?

"I really think you ought to give it a rest, knucklehead. This vault has something greater that loot; glorious food!"

"The day I 'give it a rest' is the day I keel over and die. Besides, don't you find it the least bit suspicious that this place isn't trying to kill us with deadly toxins or deleterious damnations from below?"

"I'll admit, I've never felt this comfortable before. Although I never had a great life to begin with."

"Then let's go deeper into the vault, and get to the bottom of this mystery."

The vault continued on the same way it began; boring. The deeper they got, the staler everything began to become.

After making it to the Overseers office, a single terminal lay in front of them, on, and just waiting to be read. Three files came up upon opening the computer, all dated three days apart from each other; the first one September 9th, 2078, the second September 12th, and the last one the 15th. The first file went as follows;

**What a nice place to live. I seriously can't imagine life without out this vault. The food is abundant, the beds are empty, and I'm all by myself. My life wasn't of much value anyway. Never married, my last relative passed away when I was twenty six, and I was poor and I was a poor and homeless man living on the street. Now I'm here and I couldn't be happier.**

The second file read as such;

**Something about this vault just ain't right. The name is Edwin Craig, and I'm all alone in this hollow shell of a vault. There's no people here, the food is abundant, and everything I need is here. If paradise where a steel plated fortress of solitude, it'd be this place for sure. I'll find my way out somehow. **

The final file slated on the 15th read;

**OH FUCK I'VE DONE IT NOW! To anybody out there who's reading this message, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY! The perfection is a deception! Vault-Tec is a terrorist organization, hell-bent on torturing the innocent and alone. Worse is that the atom bombs fell, and outside is hell on Earth. I'd much rather take my chances of surviving out there than being left in here. And a final farewell, since HE'S watching.**

"Sebastian I'm genuinely scared now. Like, more scared than my time with the Legion."

"We've got two options then; 1. We haul ass outta here or 2. We continue deeper into the catacombs. What do you think?"

"Something's crawling in the back of my neck to discover what's below us. Plus, we can't let Vault-Tec win."

"Oh Trinity, sweet Trinity, haven't you figured it out yet," crackled a voice on the intercom system. "The answers been right in front of you the whole time. Sebastian was smart enough not to play into my trap, but you were darling. And since you insist on raiding MY HOME, and stealing MY SUGAR BOMBS, then you won't mind if I take them back from you. BY. FORCE."

"What the hell are you!?" Exclaimed Trinity. "Why don't you show yourself, coward, and let my knife do the talking."

"Of course, I apologize. Let me slip into something a little more comfortable, shall I?"

What felt like an earthquake began to tremble as the duo fell to the ground, knocking the wind out of them. Upon opening her eyes, Trinity gazed upon the impossible; the vault was gone. Vanished, without a trace. And in front of her stood something she couldn't imagine; a man, layered with a tux, a top hat and cane. In the middle of the-now much bigger cave that was once a vault.

Then it became apparent to Trinity, and it hit her like a herd of brahmin charging; the vault was alive.


End file.
